Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) – The immigration problem, beyond any judgment on economics and politics, is a question of respect for the dignity of the person, of the other individual that lives in our midst. As a young Scalabrinian missionary in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Parish Pastor Fr. Fabricio Pesce, says: “In Argentina, as well, we have seen – I myself as missionary have seen – that the human dignity, especially that of the migrants, is often reduced to inhumane conditions. The exploitation that we see today, is an all-too evident sign of what is behind a business. As a Scalabrinian missionary, many times I have been in contact with small families who work for European companies, Italian ones included, and I they are treated exactly like slaves. These people work to make a product like that shirt...which is later sold in Europe. Unfortunately, nobody knows these things and many times we ourselves buy things without knowing they were made by people working in slave-like conditions. And no one wants to hear these things, not even in Argentina...Especially as members of the Church, we should spread awareness on these issues. We should know who has made something. That implies finding out that the shirt I buy in Milan was perhaps made here buy a child reduced to slavery in a Latin American country. Perhaps, in this manner, public awareness would change and things as well would start to change, seeing as the spectrum of the businesses is so wide and the interests at stake are so many...” (Luca De Mata) (Anticipation for the television program “The Suitcase Tied with a String”: 4 episodes of a study on world immigration to be aired on the RAI beginning June 29) (Agenzia Fides 9/6/2009)
